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Costco Members: New Mac Studio Desktop: Apple M1 Max Chip, 32 GB RAM, 512GB SSD
$1,700
$1,950
12% off
+ Free Shippingat Costco Wholesale
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+ Free Shippingat Costco WholesaleDeal Details
Costco Wholesale has for their Members: New Mac Studio Desktop: Apple M1 Max Chip (MJMV3LL/A) on sale for $1699.99. Shipping is free.
Thanks to Community Member Weejie for finding this deal.
Note: You need to be an active Costco Member and signed in to your account to purchase at sale price, otherwise non-members may purchase but are subject to a 5% surcharge.
Specs:
Thanks to Community Member Weejie for finding this deal.
Note: You need to be an active Costco Member and signed in to your account to purchase at sale price, otherwise non-members may purchase but are subject to a 5% surcharge.
Specs:
- Apple M1 Max Chip
- 10-core CPU with 8 performance cores and 2 efficiency cores
- 24-core GPU
- 16-core Neural Engine
- 400GB/s memory bandwidth
- 32GB RAM (Unified Memory)
- 512GB Solid State Drive
- Built-in speaker
- Bluetooth 5.0
- Wi-Fi (802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 wireless networking) (IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac compatible)
- macOS Monterey
- Ports:
- 3.5 mm headphone jack
- HDMI port (supports multichannel audio output)
- 4x Thunderbolt 4 (up to 40Gb/s)
- 2x USB-A
- 10Gb Ethernet
- 2x USB-C Ports (Front)
- SDXC Card Slot (UHS-II)
- 7.7-inch-square, 3.7-inch-tall design in silver
Editor's Notes
Written by StrawMan86 | Staff- About this deal:
- Valid through 1/31/2023, or while supplies last.
- This price is $250 less (13% savings) than the listed retail price for this configuration.
- About this product:
- 4.8 out of 5 stars rating at Costco based on over 55 customer reviews
- About this store:
- You can view Costco's Return Policy here.
- Additional Note:
- Please refer to the Forum Thread for additional discussion regarding this deal.
Community Notes
About the Poster
Deal Details
Community Notes
About the Poster
Costco Wholesale has for their Members: New Mac Studio Desktop: Apple M1 Max Chip (MJMV3LL/A) on sale for $1699.99. Shipping is free.
Thanks to Community Member Weejie for finding this deal.
Note: You need to be an active Costco Member and signed in to your account to purchase at sale price, otherwise non-members may purchase but are subject to a 5% surcharge.
Specs:
Thanks to Community Member Weejie for finding this deal.
Note: You need to be an active Costco Member and signed in to your account to purchase at sale price, otherwise non-members may purchase but are subject to a 5% surcharge.
Specs:
- Apple M1 Max Chip
- 10-core CPU with 8 performance cores and 2 efficiency cores
- 24-core GPU
- 16-core Neural Engine
- 400GB/s memory bandwidth
- 32GB RAM (Unified Memory)
- 512GB Solid State Drive
- Built-in speaker
- Bluetooth 5.0
- Wi-Fi (802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 wireless networking) (IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac compatible)
- macOS Monterey
- Ports:
- 3.5 mm headphone jack
- HDMI port (supports multichannel audio output)
- 4x Thunderbolt 4 (up to 40Gb/s)
- 2x USB-A
- 10Gb Ethernet
- 2x USB-C Ports (Front)
- SDXC Card Slot (UHS-II)
- 7.7-inch-square, 3.7-inch-tall design in silver
Editor's Notes
Written by StrawMan86 | Staff- About this deal:
- Valid through 1/31/2023, or while supplies last.
- This price is $250 less (13% savings) than the listed retail price for this configuration.
- About this product:
- 4.8 out of 5 stars rating at Costco based on over 55 customer reviews
- About this store:
- You can view Costco's Return Policy here.
- Additional Note:
- Please refer to the Forum Thread for additional discussion regarding this deal.
Community Voting
Deal
Score
+42
Good Deal
Bad Deal
Top Comments
As mentioned the M2 Pro CPUs are faster than the M1 Max's. But also the Wi-Fi is better (6e on the Mini vs. 6 on the Studio) and so is the the Bluetooth (5.3 on the Mini vs. 5.0 on the Studio).
The only reason to get this deal is if you don't care about CPU performance as much as you care about GPU. The Mac Studio M1 Max's GPU performance is better in benchmarks (likely due to the M1 Max's 12 GPU cores vs. the M2 Pro's 10). The only other differences between the two machines is the Studio has 2 additional USB-C ports and an SD card reader on the front.
On the phone side, apple is unparalleled, on the computer side they are not a leader at all. 8 years used to be a lot but computers and even phones now days last much longer than before. If you upgrade more often than 8 years you'll probably be fine but I have quite a few friends and family using computers over 8 years old.
You can look here and see the Mac os compatibility with older macs: https://en.m.wikipedia.
You'll notice macos 13 doesn't officially support anything older than 2017. Which isn't that old. It's also not the same year for every Mac either, some are supported longer than others.
Apple only recently started releasing security updates for older os versions and even with that they only go two years back and they don't support it the same as their current version. You can read more about that here: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2...-of-macos/
If you want a really detailed article on Mac os updates and how long you'll get them you can read one here: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2...a-problem/
Tldr: don't expect more than 8 years of updates and that isn't class leading at all.
Second, you omitted that the Studio comes with a 10Gb Ethernet port, which again matters when you are moving enormous video files around a LAN (the better WifFi on the M2 Pro doesn't come close to those speeds!). That option is an additional $100 more, and added 2 weeks of additional lead time on a BTO the M2 Pro Mini. So your price comparison ("the price is the same") is actually off by $100 for this Studio, which is cheaper than a comparably equipped (32GB/512GB/10GbE) M2 Pro Mini.
Finally, Apple does tend to support its professional machines (like the Studio) longer than its consumer (ie M2 Mini) and "pro-sumer" lines (which is where I'd place the M2 Pro Mini). When you've got a customer base that can and will spend up to $56K for video editing machines (the old Intel Mac Pro), you support those companies. I'm curious to see how the next iterations of the Studio and Pro product lines roll out over the rest of the year.
While I'd agree that these machines are roughly comparable in many ways IMO, there's no question that if you are a professional video editor or film animator the Studio is the better machine. For the rest of us schlubs though... it's mostly a wash in terms of performance for the price. There are plusses and minuses.
So I don't agree that this is a "not a good deal", even though I'm slightly inclined to go with the M2 Pro mainly because it is a bit more power efficient, plus the form factor (other than no front ports), and the slightly newer processor. In my use case, the 32GB RAM and the better RAM bandwidth would probably matter mostly when running virtual machines. But as I want at least 1TB fast SSD storage (external TB4 enclosures with NVME4 SSDs capable of comparable speeds to the internal SSD actually cost even more than Apple's expensive pricing!), I'll probably end up with a BTO of one or the other at an even higher price point.
But at this price the Studio is worth a look and is a tempting alternative. Too bad Citibank & Costco stopped offering the 4-year extended warranty protection plan last week though, or that might have tipped the scales in favor of the Studio for me.
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134 Comments
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As mentioned the M2 Pro CPUs are faster than the M1 Max's. But also the Wi-Fi is better (6e on the Mini vs. 6 on the Studio) and so is the the Bluetooth (5.3 on the Mini vs. 5.0 on the Studio).
The only reason to get this deal is if you don't care about CPU performance as much as you care about GPU. The Mac Studio M1 Max's GPU performance is better in benchmarks (likely due to the M1 Max's 12 GPU cores vs. the M2 Pro's 10). The only other differences between the two machines is the Studio has 2 additional USB-C ports and an SD card reader on the front.
Second, you omitted that the Studio comes with a 10Gb Ethernet port, which again matters when you are moving enormous video files around a LAN (the better WifFi on the M2 Pro doesn't come close to those speeds!). That option is an additional $100 more, and added 2 weeks of additional lead time on a BTO the M2 Pro Mini. So your price comparison ("the price is the same") is actually off by $100 for this Studio, which is cheaper than a comparably equipped (32GB/512GB/10GbE) M2 Pro Mini.
Finally, Apple does tend to support its professional machines (like the Studio) longer than its consumer (ie M2 Mini) and "pro-sumer" lines (which is where I'd place the M2 Pro Mini). When you've got a customer base that can and will spend up to $56K for video editing machines (the old Intel Mac Pro), you support those companies. I'm curious to see how the next iterations of the Studio and Pro product lines roll out over the rest of the year.
While I'd agree that these machines are roughly comparable in many ways IMO, there's no question that if you are a professional video editor or film animator the Studio is the better machine. For the rest of us schlubs though... it's mostly a wash in terms of performance for the price. There are plusses and minuses.
So I don't agree that this is a "not a good deal", even though I'm slightly inclined to go with the M2 Pro mainly because it is a bit more power efficient, plus the form factor (other than no front ports), and the slightly newer processor. In my use case, the 32GB RAM and the better RAM bandwidth would probably matter mostly when running virtual machines. But as I want at least 1TB fast SSD storage (external TB4 enclosures with NVME4 SSDs capable of comparable speeds to the internal SSD actually cost even more than Apple's expensive pricing!), I'll probably end up with a BTO of one or the other at an even higher price point.
But at this price the Studio is worth a look and is a tempting alternative. Too bad Citibank & Costco stopped offering the 4-year extended warranty protection plan last week though, or that might have tipped the scales in favor of the Studio for me.
Attachment 12891052
Watch for the speed issues.
Watch for the speed issues.
That applies to the cheapest base Mac Mini M2 with the 256GB only, not the Mac Mini M2 Pro which is being compared to the Studio here.
This is also well known, and the same problem exists on the cheapest base model (256GB) M2 Macbook Air. The internal SSD is roughly half as fast when it is only single chip/single channel. That means it is "only" roughly equivalent to a NVME 3.0 SSD.
But yeah, wrong thread for that info.
Still it is important to note that Apple's professional line is probably not the best choice for HTPC home theater buffs.
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If you need more, external drives are plentiful and a NAS is recommended.
You can add add more external storage afterwards.
If you want max speed, you can get a Thunderbolt enclosure.
And if you want max savings, but slower speed, you can get a USB 3/USB C enclosure.
Or get a combination. Thunderbolt for your main work drives and the slower/cheaper enclosures for a backup drive for example.
Still it is important to note that Apple's professional line is probably not the best choice for HTPC home theater buffs.
This is on top of the dozens of posts and hundreds of responses on forums full of people complaining about this limitation.
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